David Hoffer

I am one of the judges of team Space Girls for the SPSFC5 contest. This review is my personal opinion. Officially, it is still in the running for the contest, pending any official team announcements.

Status: Yes
Read: 30%

While I was aware early into this book it clearly states it is a sequel, I didn't realize until after finishing the sample that book 1 was a SPSFC semifinalist. Technically, sequels are disqualified from entering the contest. For the most part, it is sufficiently show more self-explanatory that I didn't feel lost because I never read book 1.

This book has strong Contact vibes. Yes, that popular Jodie Foster film where she gets hyped for locating an outer space radio transmission that is the blueprints of a wormhole machine. A film I enjoyed immensely and felt annoyed with the ending. In a way, I suspect this book took those annoyance elements into account and wanted to subvert them a bit. Whoever is the communicator from the other side does a John Carter and 'perishes' to teleport their consciousness into a human body.

With this basic premise, Prophet veers a bit into a different direction where we have the aftermath of not one but 2 friendly aliens inhabiting human bodies. We can also notice some overlapping themes from the 1994 Stargate film (sorry, I have never seen the tv series, so I don't know the lore that well). While this book and Stargate are arguably different, there is a clear overlap with the initial 15 minutes of that film. Mostly pertaining that the US military has secured the communication device and the chief story protagonists are involved with the military in variable ways. One key difference however is that humans have not discovered how to teleport themselves using the 'Beacon' device. From what I have read so far, this book focuses on how a second hidden message embedded with the original has some mechanism that serves as the key. Which apparently brings the story focus back to the 2 aliens in human form.

All the military adjacent characters know at least one guy named Stephen isn't human, but they let him live a somewhat ordinary life. Since I haven't read book 1, I cannot discern much about the story mechanics. Only that he operates the Beacon control center and got into a rift with a General. Long story short, this book commences with a strong bang where an acquaintance named Meg ends up thrown into endless problems.

The story seemingly overlaps with a key focus on a fringe religious cult that is obsessed with the Beacon and believes the 2 aliens hiding among humans are some kind of rapture guides. Reminiscent from Contact once again, I liked how this book explored the religious cult in greater detail. Contact's cult merely played a role as an anti alien domestic terrorism organization. Which left it as a secondary plot conflict that would not have altered the course of the ending and only expanded the film an additional 15-20 minutes. This book's cult meanwhile, plays a pivotal plot role, which does a nice job of pitting religious fervor with Meg's agnosticism. All signs this book at least within the first 30% will appeal to Incensepunk readers that enjoy a bit of religious magical realism undertones in their First Contact alien stories.

Despite being a bit of an unusual story with some meandering, the plot is in motion within the 30%, it does feels gripping enough to count as a thriller and I am voting Yes for itto continue in the competition. show less